I spotted this sign outside the Arlington Bar on Woodlands Road in Glasgow yesterday, and it made me laugh. Definitely one of those Only In Glasgow types of thing.
#glasgowpubs
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The Islay Inn looking very welcoming on a rainy night in the West End of Glasgow.
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Intriguingly, in the clouds above the ship is a spitfire, complete with RAF roundels. Given that this stained glass is purported to date from a refit of the bar in 1938, this seems to foreshadow the pivotal role the Queen Mary would come to play in World War II as a troop-carrier, starting just two years later in 1940.
The beautiful stained glass portrait of the RMS Queen Mary in the Steps Bar on Glassford Street in Glasgow, whose Art Deco interior is said to have been inspired by the Cunard liner which was built at the John Brown shipyard in Clydebank between 1930 and 1934.
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While you can still just about make out its name along the front of the building where it once was, the Western Bar no longer exists and the site is now occupied by a branch of Greggs. In an ironic twist of fate, the Dowanhill Church in Hyndland, whose congregation were key players in the fight to keep Hyndland dry, is now home to the Cottiers Bar.
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While the temperance movement managed to ensure Hyndland had no bars until the Rock opened, in the face of many protests, in 1966, the Partick Wine, Spirit and Beer Trade Defence Association helped ensure the residents of Partick always had plenty of choices of where to drink, a situation which continues right up until today.
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The ghost signs on this wall on Peel Street in Glasgow reveal it was once home to the Western Bar, one of 44 pubs in the Partick area of the city in the 1930s. By contrast, the neighbouring area of Hyndland had none. The difference was due, in part, to the wonderfully named Partick Wine, Spirit and Beer Trade Defence Association, and its one-time president John Mossman, who ran the Western Bar in the early 1900s.
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The sign for The Aragon in the West End of Glasgow. Despite the appearance of this sign, it only opened in 1970, making it one of the newer pubs on Byres Road. Before that, it was a Butcher's Shop.
The Dolphin Bar at Partick Cross in the west of Glasgow. There's been a bar on this site since at leat the late 19th Century, and it apparently took its name from the local Dolphin Choir. Where they got their name from, I don't know!
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The reasons why so many pubs were left behind when the Glasgow Corporation (as the council was then known) was demolishing so many tenements in the post-war years doesn't seem to be completely clear, but it may have been down to the cost of compensating the licencee for the loss of their business.
Glasgow is filled with orphaned pubs. These are pubs which once occupied the ground floor of a tenement building, but the tenement above it has since been demolished. Some, like this one on Argyle Street in Finnieston, still have their neighbouring tenements, but others stand alone, the only surviving structure on what was once a bustling street lined with homes.
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Its current name, The Griffin, dates from the 1960s, and comes from the surname of the landlord at that time, William Griffin.
An 1855 Classical style corner tenement on Bath Street in Glasgow. While there has been a pub on the ground floor since at least 1865, the current pub, with its Art Nouveau style detailing, was created in 1904 for the then owner Duncan Tweedley. At that point, it was called the King's Arms (after the King's Theatre which stands on the opposing corner).
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It's great to see Clarke and Bell's Art Nouveau style saloon bar on Dumbarton Road in Partick finally getting a decent make-over. Built for Philip MacSorley (who also owned MacSorley's on Jamaica Street) in 1900 on the site of an older pub called the Clan Vaults, it's previously been known as The Roost, Wall Street, The Exchequer, The Fitter and Firkin, The Clinic and Boho.
Love this original lift entrance in Burnet, Boston and Carruthers' 1905 Gordon Chambers on Mitchell Street in Glasgow. I especially like how the pediment in the metalwork mirrors the broken pediment in the stonework over the street entrance.
